


Coming to Terms

by Merfilly



Series: One Chance to Set it Right [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence - Order 66, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 06:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14050755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: The exiles wait for Plo to wake... and then plan when he does. There is strife between the Togruta, though.





	Coming to Terms

Wolffe would, reluctantly, give the watch to Bultar or Lia before the others had come. Now, though, after just a few days of watching Rex, he willingly blocked out a day to take his _vod_ back to the ship he had come in on, helping move it to one of the deeper caves for hiding. It was a Mandalorian ship, stolen off the Death Watch, and Tano had checked it thoroughly for trackers.

"You're letting it eat you alive, _vod_ ," Wolffe said, as they settled into the oxygen-rich atmosphere of the ship, buckets off.

Rex glared at him, before starting preflight. "Wouldn't you be torqued if you'd had the intel and failed to act?"

"Torqued is one thing, _vod_ , but this? This carrying it with you? It's going to get you dead before you can avenge any of them, brothers or Jedi." 

Rex focused on the instrument panels, on his task, and Wolffe let him, all the way to the new landing spot. They gathered what food was aboard to add to the stores from the other ships, then did another search of the ship for anything else useful.

Before they hit the airlock, Rex paused in putting his helmet on. "How do you cope with whatever you did to get General Koon here?" he asked.

Wolffe took in a deep breath, and shook his head. "By telling myself my brothers would rather be dead than know they tried to kill him, if they had their own minds to think with."

* * *

Plo woke to find his former padawan on one side of him, and his niece on the other. He blinked slowly, letting reality of vision mesh to impressions of mind.

"Master," Bultar said softly, smiling despite tears threatening to fog up her mask.

"Hello, my padawan," he said softly. "Sha, my dear kin," he said to greet her, turning his head slightly.

"You've given us all a fright, Uncle," Sha said warmly. "Healer Lia has felt you drifting in and out of yourself these weeks of recovery."

"Weeks, is it?" the flex of his tusks was unhappy. "Who is here?"

"The two of us, Master Ti, Commander Wolffe, Captain Rex, and Ahsoka Tano," Bultar said. "And it is taking all the two men have to keep her here with us," Bultar said. "The news of the Temple hit her hard, and she is not … coping well with Master Ti."

Plo whispered something in the local dialect that he did not intend either woman to truly translate about stubborn Togruta and mistakes of the past. "My body is whole," he said with firm purpose. "And my mind is now anchored. Take me to where the others are."

"Healer Lia—" Sha began, only for the other woman to walk in.

"Is here and prepared to deal with the stubborn Sage," she told them. "Go tell the others, Sha, and take Bultar with you. I will bring Plo to the poison room shortly."

"Yes, Healer," Sha said, as Bultar grinned at the description of the arboretum. 

The two younger women left and Lia assisted Plo in sitting up, pausing when he rested his hand flat along the swell of her abdomen through her robes.

"A strong child," he said, looking up to her face.

She sank down on the edge of the bed, thumb finding one tusk to caress gently where skin gave way to bone. "I know I used the argument that you needed to leave your people another legacy, but I did not intend for you to go and get yourself shot down immediately!" she said with a fierce tone for him.

He chuckled, dark humor in the air between them. "I assure you, I had no intention of being shot down." He shifted an arm around her shoulders, holding her there. "You kept me alive. That, despite the holes in my mind of the last weeks, I know without doubt. Thank you, Lia."

"As if I would do less for any of our clan, Plo Koon." The words were duty, but the gentle caress on his tusk said otherwise. They had been friends most of their lives, as she had chosen to join their clan as a healer about the same time he first began his Sage training. 

"I know," he answered, both to the duty and to the sentiment.

* * *

Lia hesitated at the airlock of the arboretum; she was not fond of exposing herself to poisonous environments, but she knew Plo Koon was likely to choose the direction for the exiles and she wished to hear. She put on the mask and goggles after taking a deep breath of proper air, automatically checking to make certain Plo had his mask fitted correctly, that the goggles were protecting his eyes, and the man shook his head at her for it.

"You might not be coordinated enough to handle fine manipulations!" Lia protested. "You have been immobile and mostly unconscious for weeks."

"And I have lived in these more than not," Plo reminded. They then stepped into the airlock, let it cycle, and moved on into the arboretum with its plants from all over the galaxy, and the exiled Jedi alongside the pair of cloned men. 

Lia noticed the youngest of them, the foundling that Plo had spoken of many times since Micah Giiett's death was the farthest away, with the pair of men between her and the two Jedi women that lived in here. Sha was sitting with those two, and Lia could not help but notice that the Kel Dor was nearly as ill at ease in the oxygen-rich atmosphere as she felt.

Or was it the tension in the air between the pair of Togrutas? Lia focused on the mental flavor of the room and decided that was more likely, despite the fact that the younger wasn't even half the elder's age. For Kel Dor, with a reverence toward those who survived, it felt wrong to have such a challenge, a lack of respect maybe, in the air.

"General, Sir!" Wolffe called as he looked that way, and the captain stiffened to attention. 

"At ease, my Commander. Captain, please." Plo strode into the center of the chamber, in the open where benches were arranged. He took one, and everyone else began to move that way.

Everyone but young Ahsoka Tano, Lia noticed. It took the captain realizing she hadn't moved and going back for her to draw her in, and even then, she chose to sit on a retaining wall around one of the exhibits rather than take a bench. The captain hesitated, then sat beside her, rather than join Wolffe.

Lia could feel Plo's disappointment and — was that guilt? Yes, it felt like guilt, in regards to the young Togruta.

"My friends, I am relieved that you all have survived," Plo began. "There are a few others I can touch but they are bound on their own paths, and not within the ties that bind us. Now, we must choose our path."

"Sir, you're only just up," Wolffe protested.

"I appreciate the concern, but my recovery has eaten valuable time. The Darkness is rising out there, with weapons to turn against us, and those that aid us. So we must choose our journey now, and stay ahead of them."

Lia had suspected that would be the route Plo took, but it left her concerned. He would be weak for days yet, as he replenished his reserves.

"I say we must strike before they solidify their foothold," Shaak Ti said with a fierce anger behind it. Lia saw Bultar frown at first, then nod slowly at the tactical idea of that.

"No."

The soft word came not from Sha or Plo but from Ahsoka Tano, who stood and moved into the center of the benches.

"Explain, Ahsoka," Plo invited.

"They have solidified their hold. That was what the war was about. Every assassinated Senator, every planet that was 'out of the way' but invaded anyway… that was solidifying the Sith power. There is no one opposition that can bring resources to bear, because all the ones left who will resist are cut off from the others.

"With the control chips active, the men will be ruthless in tearing apart any targets they are given. That gives the Sith a near unstoppable force to bring to bear. Tactically speaking, there is no way for us to effectively strike at this time."

Bultar and Sha exchanged a look, then glanced at Shaak Ti, Lia noted, as if waiting for the Jedi Master to answer those words. Shaak Ti regarded Ahsoka for a long moment, tension rising.

"Are you speaking out of caution, or because you do your master's bidding?" Shaak Ti asked at last.

The slim girl's body went rigid, fists clenching, before Lia saw the girl reach for restraint.

"You believed I would turn against the Jedi and Vod'e once before, Master Ti, and you were wrong. You are also blind to the fact that Anakin Skywalker was in the Chancellor's direct confidence the entire time I knew him. Makes me wonder how much of his Fall was a choice and how much was a shove down that path," Ahsoka said in a tight voice. "Regardless of the answer, he is Fallen, and I am committed to the Light."

Lia knew the unease was growing in the younger Jedi women, felt the shift of the two clones toward protectiveness for Ahsoka. She glanced at Plo, and found him unreadable, either by tusk position or mental impression.

"What would you have us do?" Sha asked, focusing on Ahsoka. "I am curious, as you are, for better or worse, the only one who might have a glimpse on Skywalker's mind."

"No, Knight Koon, I do not," Ahsoka said. "I have walled off my training bond. Because the actions you told me he did makes it clear that my Master is gone. What that monster will do is not predictable on what I knew of Anakin. But I can analyze the situation we're in. We need to step carefully."

"And let him hunt us down, instead of carrying the fight to him?" Shaak asked, her tone scornful.

Ahsoka turned and faced Shaak fully. Lia watched as the girl straightened to her full height, but did not let aggression enter her body language.

"Master, I understand the depth of betrayal you feel right now. I know that you put a lot of yourself in training the Vod'e. I can also understand the pain you feel at failing to defend the Temple.

"But if I can step past the guilt I carry for not seeing a warning in my master, in having left when my presence might very well have prevented this… you must also let go the negative feelings into the Force, before it poisons all we might do to set the galaxy right."

Lia felt the intense pride in Plo that exploded for that calm, measured speech. Shaak looked abashed, and dropped her head in acknowledgment of the younger girl's words.

"The question stands, Ahsoka," Plo said. "Your suggestion? As I cannot endanger my people for much longer by us staying here."

"We can't get enough intelligence here either," Bultar said. "Not to seriously find our way."

Ahsoka turned and looked back toward the captain, before she looked at Plo. "The Outer Rim. We hide for now, slowly consolidate our resources in terms of other survivors, making contact with those we can trust, all of that. It will take them time to turn their greed and destruction toward the Rim."

"Objections?" Plo asked.

Sha made a noise. "Uncle, I will remain here. If danger comes to the Sages, I wish to be able to warn you, and it is beyond time for me to learn their ways."

"That does make sense, Sha," Plo said. "You will be missed among us, but it will make for a point of communication I find easy to touch." He then glanced at Lia, and Lia nodded just slightly. She would remain open to his touch, no matter where he went.

Ahsoka moved to go back to where she had been sitting, but both Wolffe and Rex reached out, convincing her to share their bench, now that a direction had been decided. Lia could fee their intent on protecting her, and wondered if she'd ever get the full story behind the distance with the girl and the Jedi.


End file.
